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Published on: July 3, 2013
Effect of a diet with unrestricted sodium on ascites in patients with hepatic cirrhosis
Xi-Bing Gu1, Xiao-Juan Yang, Hong-Ying Zhu
1Department of Liver Disease, Wuxi Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Wuxi, China.
Background/Aims:
There has been debate on whether a sodium-restricted diet (SRD) should be used in cirrhotic patients with ascites in China in recent years. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of sodium-restricted and unrestricted diets on plasma renin activity (PRA), renal blood flow (RBF) and ascites in patients with liver cirrhosis.
Methods:
Two hundred cirrhotic patients with ascites were randomly divided into two groups (98 cases in the sodium-unrestricted diet [SUD] group and 102 cases in the SRD group); 95 patients (96.94%) in the SUD group and 97 patients (95.1%) in the SRD group had post-hepatitis B cirrhosis.
Results:
Blood sodium and RBF were higher in SUD group than in SRD group (p<0.001), while PRA were significantly lower in SUD group than the SRD group 10 days after treatment (p<0.001). Renal impairment caused by low blood sodium was higher in SRD group than in SUD group (p<0.01). Ascites disappeared in higher proportion of patients in SUD group than in SRD group (p<0.001).
Conclusions:
SUD can increase the level of blood sodium and RBF, and be beneficial to diuresis and ascite reduction and disappearance.
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